Nunez begins hunger strike

Arcadia real estate developer Henry Nunez is beginning a hunger strike today (Easter Sunday, April 4) to draw his attention to what he says is the most important City Council election in the city’s history, he announced to ArcadiasBest.com on Saturday.

(Story continues following the video below of Nunez’s statement to ArcadiasBest.com.)

Get the Flash Player to see this content. Nunez intends to continue his strike for 10 days until the polls are closed on election day 10 days from now on Tuesday, April 13. In the meantime, while asking the Methodist Hospital to help monitor his vital health signs during his strike, Nunez wants to convey his multiple concerns with the current City Council and staff and his endorsement of candidates Paul Cheng and Sho Tay and incumbent Mayor Pro Tem Peter Amundson.

He is also strongly campaigning against the re-election of incumbent Bob Harbicht because he believes Harbicht’s campaign slogan of “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” is indicative of a lack of vision or willingness to be pro-active in finding ways to develop Arcadia for the future and give students motivation and the ability to return to Arcadia after college and eventually raise their families here. He explained his issues with Harbicht several weeks ago in a 2,000-word comment on Harbicht’s blog here at ArcadiasBest.com (click to read, or see copy of comments at bottom of this story).

Nunez is frustrated by the City’s lack of development of strategic plan for a visitor-enticing train station or a plan to develop businesses and appealing new residences around the coming Gold Line light rail line that begins construction in June and will run through Arcadia and open in 2013.

He also wants to stop the expansion of the Rusnak Mercedes auto dealership, which he believes should not be situated in the heart of downtown.

Each of the three candidates said they appreciate Nunez’s  endorsement. Cheng voiced concern for his health. But none were not yet familiar enough with all the specifics of Nunez’s positions which they had not seen or heard as of Saturday night. Nunez plans to soon launch a blog at HenrySays.com.

— By Scott Hettrick

You may submit a comment by scrolling all the way to bottom.

The following is the 2,000 word comment that Nunez posted on Bob Harbicht’s blog at this site:

The most troubling thing I ever heard you saY was that “You don’t want change in Arcadia”. There is an older saying that says if you are not moving forward you are moving backward. Arcadia is blessed that we have the Mall and the race track that has provided us revenues for many years. Unfortunately this has caused a comfort in our City Leaders that the revenue will continue forever. But that is not true, the Horse Racing Industry has been declining for years it’s survivability is questionable and retail sales have declined drastically. The Mall’s new addition looks horrible, has created major parking problems and the condition of the mall is fair to poor. Our City’s leaders focus remains there while neglecting the rest of our City.

Have you driven Live Oak in the last 5 years, Huntington Drive’s improvements have been planters which removed parking and narrowed the street but what about any outreach to our small businesses. What about any effort to attract the “right” combination of businesses to gain some momentum and opportunities for our citizenry to gather and spend our money in Arcadia rather than spending it in Pasadena. First Avenue, Foothill Blvd, Baldwin Ave has no continuity of any sort, I don’t even know how to describe them other than a hot mess.

Dining? Bob, do you like a good steak, let me know where you get one other than the Derby. Remember Target? Arcadia was too good for a Target well they have been very successful in Pasadena and that location allowed Duarte City a Target. Do you know they now have a Best Buy? Do you remember that Caruso’s project is patterned after Myrtle Avenue in Monrovia? Take a lesson from them, they have done an unbelievable job of planning, creative uses of funds to attract great dining, businesses and development.

You should be embarrassed of yourself for your supreme selfishness.  Your wishes of no change is going to cause Arcadia many problems for many years after you are gone. Have you ever asked yourself where are the youth in Arcadia? Do you ever see them anywhere in our City? You spent $720,000 on one of the top consultants in general plans and you not only dismissed the entire plan and recommendations of the Consultant and the Advisory Committee which I was proud to be a member of but you insulted the members that spoke on behalf of our recommendations. It was such a shock that our City Leaders would react in such a manner.

You as Mayor instructed the committee to go back and revise the plan but each time they did those changes were brought to the Council and were changed and sent back to the Committee.  The Committee made more changes and again the plan was taken to the Council the Council made their own changes again. This went on for 6 meetings but it did not take but a couple before the message was very clear that the Council was the body creating the general plan which the Consultant has remarked is 25 years behind todays standards. That’s where I think your thinking has stalled but that’s just my opinion and certainly not an insult.

What a waste of $720,000 and countless hours of the Advisory Committee’s time and staff’s time.  Our City’s staff are an incredible jewel of resources that Arcadia has but don’t handcuff them, listen to them they can lead this great City into the future. They are very well versed in the needs of Arcadia but you don’t let them do their job.

My opinion is that you and the Council are not qualified to create Arcadia’s general plan for the following reasons:

1. There is a huge difference in generations between when you were raised and our youths generation. Technology has changed our lives so quickly you may not be aware they don’t ride bikes like you did when you were young, they don’t like to use a phone to talk but would rather text and they are technologically superior which affects every aspect of their lives. Have you ever asked any youths what their needs will be in the future? Beaver Cleaver is now in his 50’s probably divorced, overworked and stressed, maybe sees his kids on the weekends and most likely lost his home to the mortgage crisis. It’s a different world Bob you must use vision to place Arcadia in a position to be able to offer the citizenry the services we will need in the future.

2. Your reliance on the Mall and Race Track has caused you to make two of the biggest mistakes in Arcadia’s history. Because of your “no change” policy and lack of vision to redevelop Arcadia with today’s smart growth policies that reduce our reliance on cars and create public spaces for us to gather and interact and improve the quality of our lives, our City looks like a time warp with all areas of our City totally disconnected. You still are adamant on being the first City to have an automobile dealership in our downtown area. Ask any Planning Expert, it is ludicrous and a reflection of your desperation and lack of vision. The Council was so desperate and fearful you happily gave away the most important tool in redevelopment-Eminent Domain and one of the Councilmen is an attorney in that field. You ridiculed one of our small business owners for not selling his property to you, he had to literally fight City Hall by himself. You treated him so poorly and arrogantly and with absolutely no compassion. One man out negotiated our entire City Hall and you think you can handle Ruznak? Instead of developing alternative options to increase revenues you sacrifice some of the most valuable land Arcadia has for an automobile dealership. Which now seems like it is not viable in today’s climate and especially the fact that Ruznak recently submitted plans to build a large dealership in Pasadena. Pasadena’s Mayor in the news media stated they are going to cooperate with Ruznak in every way possible and they will not lose them to Arcadia. Your negotiations with Ruznak have gone nowhere and you have no leverage.

3. You have never created a City wide Economic Development Plan that will leverage the historic opportunity the Gold Line Station can have in linking and promoting all of Arcadia’s resources-Santa Anita Race Track, Santa Anita Golf Course, Santa Anita Park, Pools, Tennis Courts, Baseball Fields, Arboretum, Wilderness Park, Chantry Flats etc. and the development potential to tie all of these together and market them globally. We have the only Global Property in the region the Santa Anita Race Track but yet opportunity after opportunity pasts with no effort and yet not even any sense of the power of this reality. On January 18th I spoke to the Council about my concerns and was confronted by the most disgusting and glaring looks by a couple of the Councilmembers. I was in the Redevelopment meeting prior to the Council meeting and your fellow Councilmen did not know anything about the Gold Line Station. They did not know where the riders will board the train where they will park I was in shock to see what little knowledge they have and they are the ones making these decisions. Your thinking out of the box is having some ground floor retail on the parking structure, please you are not doing enough innovative planning we are a joke compared to the other foothill cities. Look around at what other Cities are doing and they don’t even have near the resources we have. Hotels Bob? Heck we can just send them to Monrovia or Pasadena why not let them collect the taxes and the money visitors spend.

4. We have never openly addressed the issue of integrating all of the diversities in our City. I graduated Arcadia High School in 1976 and some of my peers still suffer from resentments to the changes to our City. We are all one – ARCADIANS!!!!!!! How many years have you served Bob? How about your other Councilmen, 20+ years? Recently on Arcadia’s Best Poll there were the most racist remarks written and what community outreach has ever been done to promote understanding and acceptance. It would have taken such little effort 30 years ago but still nothing. But there is such fear that the City will be ruined if the wrong people get elected. Well Bob you guys have had 20+ years and not much look to the future so don’t be so worried about ethnic signs being placed all over our City. The old school’s fears do not exist in todays generation.

5. If 50 years ago we started setting aside 3-4% of our budget we probably would own the Santa Anita Park and the Arboretum. Look at our City map and you can see the County owns two of the largest properties in our City. Poor Vision and Poor Planning.

6. There has never been any type of leadership development program for Arcadia. Instead the same players keep handing off the Mayorship football back and forth. OK it’s your turn, next time it will be me again. This does not foster any innovation for our City it just keeps the same “no change” mentality that we see has done so well for Live Oak, Huntington Drive, Baldwin Avenue, Foothill Blvd and First Avenue. There is no connectivity and I think it’s a reflection of the disconnect our Council has with today’s reality and how the future changes our San Gabriel Valley will affect Arcadia’s needs in the future.

7. The worst part is if anybody has different ideas that include knowledge of the many changes our region face and love Arcadia enough to try and voice the importance of smart innovative planning they get branded a trouble maker by one of our Councilmembers as I recently was at Senator Diane Feinsteins visit to the San Gabriel Valley in front of Mayors that I have a high level of respect for. As Immediate Past Chairman of the San Gabriel Valley Economic Partnership and Executive Officer I was honored to be seated at the Senators’ table. I love Arcadia as much as any Councilmember and I volunteer myself to head a taskforce to create a City wide Economic Plan to first educate our Citizenry of the huge changes coming to our region; secondly to explore the possibilities of alternative revenue generating income for Arcadia so we don’t have to rely on a dying Horse Racing Industry and the recent decline in retail sales and the vulnerability the huge debt these large conglomerate Mall operators can have on our City. Much larger Corporations have failed very recently and Bob you were very wrong when you stated in the Chamber of Commerce meeting that the Mall isn’t going anywhere.  Check their balance sheet and the amount of their debt and see that you may want to retract that statement. Thirdly, what smart growth policies can help to integrate our citizenry, create public spaces for us to gather and improve the quality of our lives and provide the needs we will require in the future.

OUR CITY IS GREAT BUT WE NEED TO BE SMART AND POSITION OUR CITY PROPERLY BY USING ALL OF OUR RESOURCES AND KNOWING WHAT TYPE OF RESOURCES WE ARE GOING TO NEED TO PROVIDE IN THE FUTURE. I AM SURE OUR CITY RESOURCES CAN CREATE ADDITIONAL REVENUES FOR OUR CITIZENRY. WHAT CAN BE WRONG WITH GATHERING THIS TYPE OF INFORMATION AND EXPLORE OUR POSSIBILITIES. DON’T TAKE OFFENSE TO MY REMARKS BUT TAKE TIME TO THINK ABOUT THEM AND HOPEFULLY YOU WILL SEE THE IMPORTANCE OF HOW I THINK WE NEED TO ADDRESS THE FUTURE OF ARCADIA. WILL YOU CONSIDER MY OFFER? HENRY NUNEZ